This is What Happy Looks Like (2013)

This is What Happy Looks Like. Jennifer E. Smith. 2013. Little, Brown. 404 pages.

This is the third novel I've read by Jennifer E. Smith. I've also reviewed The Comeback Season and The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight. I loved them both in very different ways. She is definitely an author I'd recommend to fans of Elizabeth Scott, Sarah Dessen, and Deb Caletti.

It starts when Ellie receives an email from a stranger. It's obviously a case of mistaken identity--this G is asking her to take Wilbur for a walk. Not wanting Wilbur to suffer, she replies back and discovers...that he's a PIG and G is a kindred spirit. A true friendship grows between E and G. They both have secrets they're keeping from one another: Ellie's secret isn't hers exclusively, so it makes sense that she wouldn't share it with just anyone. G's secret is that he is Graham Larkin, movie star. He purposefully suggests Ellie's hometown in Maine as a shooting location for his new movie, he's truly hoping to have a magical summer with the woman he can't stop thinking about. But Ellie has reasons--good reasons--not to want attention from the media.

I LOVED the beginning of this one. The email exchanges were great. I enjoyed the rest of the novel as well. It wasn't quite love, love, love for me. I did enjoy both characters, and I thought there were a few scenes in this one that worked really well. But for me, it didn't have as many magical moments as The Statistical Probability of Love At First Sight. It's a good romance. I'm definitely glad I read it!

© 2013 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Destiny, Rewritten (2013)

Destiny, Rewritten. Kathryn Fitzmaurice. 2013. HarperCollins. 176 pages.

I really enjoyed The Year The Swallows Came Early, and I loved, loved, LOVED A Diamond in the Desert. How did I feel about Destiny, Rewritten? I really, really liked it. I appreciated so many things about the heroine, Emily Elizabeth Davis. She's a heroine who needs to believe in happy endings, who writes out her favorite happy endings from books, who checks to see that there is a happy ending before even reading books, who regularly writes Danielle Steel. She's presented as smart and kind, a girl you want for a best friend, a sister, a daughter. But her life isn't perfect. Emily feels some slight pressure from her mom to live up to her destiny. Emily doesn't embrace poetry; she doesn't feel called to BE a poet just because her mom named her after Emily Dickinson. The inspiring story about how her mom found a first edition complete poems of Emily Dickinson just days before she was born? Well, it makes her love and appreciate her mom--the book of poems is updated in the margins with details from her life--but it doesn't make her want to write poetry or even write about poetry.

One day, this treasured book is LOST, donated by accident. Emily and her friends and family come together to search the city for this one-of-a-kind book. Her mom is relaxed, reassuring. If the book is meant to come back to her, then it will. Her mom is all about how destiny can't be forced or rushed, that you just have to accept it, embrace it one day at a time. Emily NEEDS the book, NOW. Why? She's just learned that the name of her father is hidden inside its pages. She never discovered this because she's never read it cover to cover. (Her mom won't tell her who her father is, won't explain why he's not a part of their lives.)

So will Emily get her happy ending?!

I definitely recommend this one! I really love Kathryn Fitzmaurice's writing. One of the reasons I love her writing is the great characterization.

© 2013 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Sunday Salon: Reading Emily of New Moon (1923)

Emily of New Moon. L.M. Montgomery. 1923. Bantam. 352 pages.

Have you met Emily Starr? Fifteen years after introducing children to the oh-so-lovable Anne Shirley, L.M. Montgomery introduces another young orphan to the world: Emily Starr. While Anne Shirley had no memories of her parents, Emily Starr remembers her father very well. In fact, readers meet him as well. When Emily of New Moon opens, Emily is about to learn the devastating truth: her father has only a few more weeks to live. He is dying; there is no cure, no hope for a cure. After her father dies, the relatives gather together. They hated Emily's father and have had nothing to do with Emily all these years. But now there is one question to be settled: who will get the "privilege"of taking Emily Starr home to raise?! She goes with Aunt Laura and Aunt Elizabeth to Prince Edward Island.

How does Emily Starr compare to Anne Shirley? Well, she's imaginative, spirited, struggles to adapt to school at least at first, loves to write...but in many ways she is quite unique. While she doesn't automatically love Aunt Elizabeth and her new home, she does come to peace with her new life. And there are many things she LOVES. Aunt Laura, Cousin Jimmy, Ilse Burnley, and Teddy Kent come to mind! But Teddy Kent is not the only boy in her life, there is also that Perry Miller and Dean "Jarback" Priest!

I do love Emily of New Moon. I'm not sure I LOVE this book as much as I love the earliest Anne books (Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea), but, there are many things I do LOVE about it. It is always great to spend time on Prince Edward Island. And L.M. Montgomery's characters can't help feeling human. She had such a great gift for bringing all of her characters to life!

 Favorite quotes:

“It had always seemed to Emily, ever since she could remember, that she was very, very near to a world of wonderful beauty. Between it and herself hung only a thin curtain; she could never draw the curtain aside-- but sometimes, just for a moment, a wind fluttered it and then it was as if she caught a glimpse of the enchanting realm beyond-- only a glimpse-- and heard a note of unearthly music.”

“Ten good lines out of four hundred, Emily—comparatively good, that is—and all the rest balderdash—balderdash, Emily."
"I—suppose so," said Emily faintly.
Her eyes brimmed with tears—her lips quivered. She could not help it. Pride was hopelessly submerged in the bitterness of her disappointment. She felt exactly like a candle that somebody had blown out.
"What are you crying for? demanded Mr. Carpenter.
Emily blinked away tears and tried to laugh.
"I—I'm sorry—you think it's no good—" she said.
Mr. Carpenter gave the desk a mighty thump.
"No good! Didn't I tell you there were ten good lines? Jade, for ten righteous men Sodom had been spared."
"Do you mean—that—after all—" The candle was being relighted again.
"Of course, I mean. If at thirteen you can write ten good lines, at twenty you'll write ten times ten—if the gods are kind. Stop messing over months, though—and don't imagine you're a genius, either, if you have written ten decent lines. I think there's something trying to speak through you—but you'll have to make yourself a fit instrument for it. You've got to work hard and sacrifice—by gad, girl, you've chosen a jealous goddess. And she never lets her votaries go—not even when she shuts her ears forever to their plea.” 

“Tell me this--if you knew you would be poor as a church mouse all your life--if you knew you'd never have a line published--would you still go on writing--would you?'
'Of course I would,' said Emily disdainfully. 'Why, I have to write--I can't help it at times--I've just got to.”

© 2013 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Week In Review: May 12-18

The Marvelous Land of Oz. L. Frank Baum. 1904. 192 pages.
Ozma of Oz. L. Frank Baum. 1907. 126 pages.
The League of Frightened Men. Rex Stout. 1935. Bantam. 320 pages.
The Daughter of Time. (Inspector Grant #5). Josephine Tey. 1955/1995. Touchstone. 206 pages.
Kept in the Dark. Anthony Trollope. 1882. 512 pages.
Penny and Her Marble. Kevin Henkes. 2013. HarperCollins. 48 pages.
The Radical Cross.  A.W. Tozer. Christian Publications. 148 pages.
The Sovereignty and Supremacy of King Jesus: Bowing to the Gracious Despot. Mike Abendroth. 2011. Day One. 240 pages.
Revelation 14-22 (Thru the Bible Commentary Series) J. Vernon McGee. Thomas Nelson. 204 pages.

© 2013 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Penny and Her Marble (2013)

Penny and Her Marble. Kevin Henkes. 2013. HarperCollins. 48 pages.

Penny was pushing her doll, Rose, in her stroller. They went back and forth on the front sidewalk. "Only go as far as Mrs. Goodwin's house," called Mama. Penny pretended they were in a big city. "Look at the tall buildings, Rose," said Penny. When they got to Mrs. Goodwin's house, they turned around. Then Penny pretended they were in a forest...

I am really loving Kevin Henkes new series starring Penny and her family. I have loved each of the books in the series so far. Penny is such a fun heroine! The first book was Penny and Her Song; the second book was Penny And Her Doll. In her latest adventure, Penny struggles with her conscience. That day she picked up a marble she found in her neighbor's yard or perhaps on the sidewalk in front of her neighbor's house. She took it without thinking of it being someone else's property. And at first, she takes pure delight in it! Though small, this marble is bringing her nothing but joy. But then she starts thinking that maybe someone is missing it, maybe it wasn't hers to take after all. Penny and Her Marble is a thoughtful book for young readers, and it's a book with a happy ending!
© 2013 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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